August 2007
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Archive for August 2007

The “Last Word” on Elaine and Gabe 2007… I promise

August 29, 2007 by admin.

abc_logo 2020
This is not a joke!
As if he needed more PR from this website, a clip from the video of Gabe’s marriage proposal to Elaine while on the flight to Hawaii was seen on national TV last night (08-28-07) by Rod who brought this to our attention. The clip was aired during ABC’s Good Morning America and 20/20. Watch closely…
Good Morning America Clip.
20/20 Clip

Ethel’s Addiction
Can you guys help me with the intervention? She uses this thing thoughout the day. While on the phone, she uses it. While laying in bed, she uses it. While watching, TV, she uses it. While on the desktop and laptop computer, she uses it. She has done it at the movies, before and even during. At Warrior games, before and during. At work, occasionally (I say occasionally because I’m not there to monitor her behavior). At the dentist’s office. At church. At family parties. At restaurants, constantly. During vacation. At the airport and on a plane while on the ground or in the air. This addiction is taking over her life…can you guess what it is?
Special thanks to a few friends out there who arranged for a special celebrity guest to reveal Ethel’s addiction on the next edition of AllegedlySpeaking.com

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Event Updates:

Bay Meadows Part III
Our trip to Friday’s Alive is still tenatively set for Friday, September 21st, at 7pm. However, new information has come to light and I may need to move this event to September 28th. As the September calendar of activities develops this week, I should be able to lock down one of these dates soon.

I discussed ticket options with AllegedlySpeaking.com member and Bay Meadows contact Louie and we will be purchasing group rate tickets as soon as we can confirm this date. All I need to know is who can go. If you already know you’re busy that night let me know now (info@allegedlyspeaking.com).

Blog World Expo
Gabe and I are attending the Blog World Expo in Las Vegas on November 8 and 9. Blog World Expo is the only industry wide tradeshow, conference and media event dedicated to the new and dynamic world of blogging. Gabe and I are hoping to network with some of the leading bloggers out there and maybe glean some information from them on how and why they have become icons of the industry. At the moment, Gabe is researching different hosting packages that would allow us to customize our “look”. We’re also trying to bring out a more cutting edge flavor to our page design by the end of the year.

las-vegas
Margarita to turn the big 3-0
Margarita’s landmark birthday celebration will be held in Las Vegas this year from November 8 through the 12th (yes the same dates as Blog World Expo 2007). Save the dates and book your reservations! Eugene’s birthday is also in November, so double the reason to party it up over there. So really what are you waiting for?

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Why the Warriors are the Greatest

August 29, 2007 by Das.

Check out thisarticle by Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg -
Sports Teams Flunk Simple Fan Free-Agent Test

Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) — Most sports fans don’t choose their allegiances.

From an early age we’re taught to cheer for the hometown team, whether that club deserves such unwavering love and loyalty or not.

If you live in, let’s say, Cleveland, the chances are better than good that you’ll back the Indians, Browns and Cavaliers. After all, your father was a Browns fan. His father was a Browns fan. And so on. It’s the same all over.

Your rooting fate, in essence, was predetermined. Your teams were chosen for you, a byproduct of a zip code. You didn’t have the luxury of picking.

Consider this, though: What if you started anew? What if, like athletes, fans declared free agency and exercised a figurative opt-out clause in their love affair? For which team would you root and why? And, more importantly, to what lengths would professional sports teams go to gain your support?

All teams say they value fans. Not all teams back up that assertion. Determining which do and which don’t is easy enough.

A simple letter is all it took.

Here’s the how-to guide:

Send the same memo to every team in the four major U.S. sports leagues: The NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball and NHL. In it, declare your free agency as a fan. Tell them you’re theirs for the taking. Offer a lifetime of allegiance. Offer your heart. Your soul.

I did just that.

Passing on Soshnick

Of the 122 teams that make up the four major U.S. leagues, guess how many even took the time to answer?

A hundred? Nope. Seventy-five, perhaps. Try again.

How about nine.

That’s a measly 7 percent. How sad.

Ninety-three percent of teams that claim to value the paying customer couldn’t be bothered to pen a note, bang out an e-mail or pick up the phone and make a sales pitch.

Remember, every team claims to value fans. Given the chance to prove it, though, a depressing number of them failed miserably.

Let’s recognize the teams that did respond: the Atlanta Hawks and Thrashers, Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals, San Diego Chargers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Dallas Mavericks, Golden State Warriors and San Jose Sharks.

“Being a fan means having an emotional commitment to a team. You can’t bribe or convince someone of that,” Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wrote in an e-mail. “They have to find it themselves.”

Best Fit

That’s the purpose of the letter — to ascertain which team is the best fit for what you care about. Maybe winning is paramount. Maybe it’s players who don’t misbehave. Once armed with the facts a decision can be made.

The Sharks, get this, actually have a director of fan development, Rob Jaynes, who sent a six-page e-mail detailing who the Sharks are, what they do and what it is they care about, on and off the ice.

“The lifeblood of any team is the fan,” he wrote. “Period. End of story.”

The Chargers and Bengals sent some promotional items, including rosters and stickers. Same for the Bears, who included a hat and T-shirt, too. The Jaguars sent a letter, highlighting their accomplishments on the field and in the community.

Making a case for the Hawks and Thrashers was co-owner Bruce Levenson, whose five-page e-mail included an invitation to enjoy his front-row seats. He also offered to introduce me and my family to the players. If you think that courtesy was extended because I’m a sports columnist think again. He does that a lot.

Winning Bid

“I love watching the expression on a kid’s (or adult’s) face when I hand them a size 18 shoe in our locker room or have their favorite player sign their jersey,” he wrote.

Speaking of jerseys, the Warriors sent me one. It had No. 1 and my last name on the back. That was the least of their pitch.

The Warriors also 1) called to say they wanted me and asked for a photo, 2) had 28 employees from various departments send e-mails, 3) had fellow New Yorker and General Manager Chris Mullin call to make the team’s case, 4) sent me a “We Believe” slogan T-shirt with my face on it 5) put together a mock press release announcing a new fan acquisition, 6) included a highlight DVD with rookies wearing my jersey, 7) sent me a $1, lifetime contract, signed by Mullin, that begins on Sept. 1 (the dollar was taped to the contract). The deal includes financial incentives, too, such as $10 for appearing at all National Basketball Association Finals games in which the Warriors play.

One hundred and thirteen teams couldn’t be bothered. Nine showed that caring for the customer is more than just a slogan. And one, the Warriors, went above and beyond.

We Believe, Warriors fans say.

Now you know why.

To contact the writer of this column: Scott Soshnick in New York at ssoshnick@bloomberg.net

Posted in Sports | Print | 1 Comment »

Gabe Signs with MTV

August 27, 2007 by admin.

mtv-logo

Congratulations to Gabe whose career path has steered him over to MTV Networks. Starting today he’ll be responsible for the online ad campaigns running on websites that are owned and operated by MTV Networks. Gabe described his task as taking ad placement tags (html/java script code) or video files and programming them into their ad servers. Then he configures them to show up X amount of times, for X amount of dates on specified web pages and locations. In certain situations he’ll be creating the ads themselves.

Good luck Gabe and make sure to kick down those extra VMA tickets this way.

ChampCast.com Waves enter the WFFL Draft
gowaves
Gabe and I attended our first draft night for the WFFL. As you can see, the name of our team is the ChampCast.com Waves. Here is our team in the order “we” picked them. We had the 6th overall pick.

Joseph Addai - RB - Indianapolis Colts
Drew Brees - QB - New Orleans Saints
Brandon Jacobs - RB - NY Giants
Javon Walker - WR - Denver Broncos
Andre Johnson - WR - Houston Texans
Deshaun Foster - RB - Carolina Panthers
Joey Galloway - WR - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Bears - DEF - Chicago
Jason Witten - TE - Cowboys
Devery Henderson - WR - New Orleans Saints
Alex Smith - QB - SF 49ers

Michael Buble Back in the Bay

On Saturday night I honored my promise to take Ethel to next Bay Area Michael Buble concert. It’s been two years since his last visit and there was only one scheduled show here and it happened to fall on the same night as the WFFL draft. So after about an hour and a half, I left the draft in San Leandro and we made it with plenty of time to spare before MB took the stage. The show was awesome and alot better than I expected it would be. During the show, Michael talked about growing up in Burnaby, Canada. I had no idea he grew up right in the middle of AllegedlySpeaking.com’s northern family headquarters! He even thanked the audience for helping him buy his dream house in Vancouver.

Maybe the next time we’re in Vancouver we can party it up with him. I’ll leave it to the Villanueva’s to monitor his wherabouts and favorite haunts up there until then. And if anyone has had their picture taken with him, send it this way.

…after the show
cha cha chas
After the show at Oracle Arena, Ethel and I headed over to The City to grab a bite to eat. We ended up at Cha Cha Cha’s on Mission St., since it stays open later than the Haight St. location. We have always heard lots of good things about this place, and finally we decided to give it a try. Talk about “A Diamond in the Rough”, this is the kinda place that doesn’t impress you until the the food arrives.

We were pretty hungry since we didn’t eat before or during the concert and everything on the menu sounded delicious. We thought about ordering entrees, since we were so hungry, but we came for the tapas, so we stuck to the plan. Unfortunately, probably due to the fact that it was already past midnight, they were out of the first 2 dishes we ordered which were the fried Calamari and Sauteed Mushrooms. Not a problem though, we then ordered the Jamaican Jerk Chicken, Black Mussels, Cajun Shrimp, and Pork Quesadilla. Along with a couple of glasses of Sangria.

Not one of those dishes disapointed. The meat from the Jerk Chicken just fell off the bone with little effort from a fork and the Jasmine rice was cooked perfectly firm. The cream sauce from the Cajun Shrimp went well with the sourdough baguette that was at our table. The Mussels were delicious, and the saffron broth they were cooked in could have made an awesome soup in itself. And the pork inside the quesadilla was as tender as could be. Definately a great late night meal that could only be found in The City.

The Mark Ruffalo Film Festival
ruffalo ruffalo jacket
Star of stage and screen, Mark Ruffalo, is the most versatile actor in movies today. I came to this conclusion after watching several of his movies this past week all by total coincidence. He’s a serious actor by choice, but gained notoriety as the male lead in the romantic comedies 13 Going On 13 and Just Like Heaven. Women love this guy because he’s handsome and sensitive and guys like him because he’s not Brad Pitt. Seriously, from the male perspective, Mark Ruffalo just doesn’t throw out that negative vibe that we get when we see Matthew McConaughey or Brad Pitt appear on screen. The “every man” portrayal of his charachters is just easier for real men to relate to than the pretty boy Hollywood losers. In light of that, and since the next 8 movies in our Netflix queue star Mark Ruffalo, we will be hosting the 1st Annual Mark Ruffalo Film Festival. The date of the festival and which movies will be shown have yet to be determined. Ideally, the movies should be something none of us or only a few of us have seen.

The last film festival Ethel and I put on was the 24 Marathon where we watched the first season of the Fox Television series 24, all 24 DVD episodes, back to back, non-stop, for 24 hours. If you don’t know the premise behind 24, it occurs in real time. A single season has 24 episodes, which represents 24 hours in the life of Agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland). Each one hour episode is an hour of Jack’s life and when one minute passes on your very own watch, one minute has passed on Jack’s watch.

jm
The Editor

Event Updates in the next edition of AllegedlySpeaking.com

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ChampCast.com goes Live

August 24, 2007 by admin.

Is your volume up? Can you recognize that smooth, sexy, sultry voice streaming out of your speakers? Why it’s none other than our very own Gabe C., otherwise known as the host of ChampCast.com’s Fantasy Football Podcast Show, “Gabe Cizzle 4 Shizzle”.

Gabe’s fantasy football podcast website went live recently with several sample podcast shows and sound tests as they prepare for the upcoming NFL season. I met with Gabe and got him to answer a couple of questions to get our family and friends up to speed about his latest Internet venture, ChampCast.com. Here’s what he had to say.

champcastlogo1

JAY: How did you come up with the name ChampCast.com?

GABE: As you know, I toggle between several projects and ideas. During the ideation process of each idea, I think of a possible name and website ideas. As you may already know, I purchase domain names, because I see them as real estate. So, if something good becomes available, I usually try to snatch it up. That said, there were two main reasons I went with the name ChampCast.

1. The main goal of every fantasy sports player is to win the championship of their respective leagues.
2. I wanted a name that told you exactly what it was.

The story goes… I came to discover the world of podcasting in 2005. I was attracted to the new medium for its coolness, realness, and the ever-popular WIIFM (what’s in it for me) factor. If I was going to have an internet radio/talk show, I needed to do it around something I was passionate about - sports. To be more specific - fantasy football. So I began searching for sports names that related to fantasy football and/or podcasting. I quickly found that almost every derivation of the word podcast, or sports related word was already taken by someone else. So, I figured i’d have to be strategic in formulating the name. I started listening to whatever podcasts I could find about football, and found that I disagreed with much of the vocal content that fantasy podcasters were publishing.

J: Why another show about Fantasy Football?

G: As mentioned earlier, the shows out there just sucked (for the most part). For example: ESPN’s Fantasy Focus football podcast show would constantly state the obvious - Start Peyton Manning or Ladainian Tomlinson. Everyone knows to start the best players at their positions. In layman’s terms, it would be like suggesting that you drive your car to work rather than take a cab. Also, judging from the current podcasts, it is blatantly obvious if not evident that either they have never played a down in their lives or they just don’t know the game. Knowing actual football gives you a more accurate and closer perspective. We are different in that we actually know the game. Another differentiator is that we do it w/ flavor and use hip-hop as our genre. The objective here is to appeal more to the fastest growing demographic in fantasy sports.

J: Whats the schedule gonna be?

G: We’re still trying to iron out the details, but the plan is make the actual weekly podcast show available to listeners by Thursday. This way you can be prepared for the upcoming weekend, and we’ll know more about injuries and such. This is definitely subject to change. As there is no budget behind this, we’re subject to the contributor/host’s schedules. I’d like to do random postings through the week.

J: What’s your role gonna be?

G: At the moment, I wear all hats: host, moderator, producer, program director, sound boy, key grip, boom operator, bartender… As the team grows and gains more experience, I will delegate various responsibilties to the team members. Fortunately for me, I started recruiting my team of contributors a year and a half ago, and the team is excited about the new venture.

J: Anything else you would like to add about yourself and/or the site?

G: We have two fantasy update tickers located on the right side of the blog. On Sunday mornings, i’ll be using Twitter to inform the fellow Twitters out there who follow ChampCast (via Twitter) of any pressing injury notes as they transpire. In addition, to this, we’ll be featuring podcast shows for all RMX sanctioned events, and any entity in the RMX Sports Network.

Thanks again to Gabe for taking time out of his incredibly busy schedule to answer some questions for our faithful readers.

…send those photos this way…

In the previous edition of AllegedlySpeaking I requested you guys to send me interesting old photos. I only received two pictures, which are only a little over one year old (2006). I think the pics probably fall more in the Wacky and Embarassing category, rather than the old. I post them here, along with my apologies to Carol. However, in the interest of equal time and fair play, I will gladly post retaliatory photos in the next edition for you or you can post them yourself in the comments section (if you can’t wait to get back at the culprit). Either way is fine by me.

Send your interesting CLASSIC photos to info@allegedlyspeaking.com

Be sure to check back here on Monday for another major annoucement (and no it’s not regarding Caroline and Paul 2008).

jm
The Editor

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Where are they now? … and an update

August 21, 2007 by admin.

Family Photo 001
When I found this picture last year I could only recognize Elaine!

Family Photo 002
My first electric car.

Send your old photos to info@allegedlyspeaking.com

Life With Prius
Last week I was able to complete an entire weeks commute to and from my work, handle Jon’s school carpool and conduct miscellaneous errands with one tank of gas. My total distance was 431 miles and my estimated miles per gallon was 45.3. When it came time to refill the tank, I spent $29.15 at $2.98 a gallon for approximately 9.75 gallons of gas. The fuel tank capacity is 11 gallons.

jm
The Editor

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Event Updates:

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Catching up with Justin

August 12, 2007 by admin.

justin

It’s been awhile since if I have reported what’s going on with our friend Justin. Actually, as I search our archives, the only time I have ever really meantioned what Justin and Justin.tv were up to was when I first mentioned the site. Since that time, I have only been reporting on the news that he was joining us at an event and what happened afterwards. So let me take this opportunity, during another slow family news week, to catch some of you up with what he has been up to lately.

Justin learns to drive a stick while on the way to Ala Moana Center to meet Gabe and Elaine.

The state of Justin.tv is strong and growing. Since Justin’s site first went live back in March there was an initial drop off after all the early hoopla surrounding the launch, but Justin and company have managed to bring the early excitement back by acquiring some interesting talent to the Justin.tv family of channels. Justin himself, has concentrated on the mechanics of his website rather than trying to keep his viewers entertained by taking a trapeeze lesson or getting a style makeover, which were things he tried in the early days. In other words, he’ll be doing things that a CEO of a start-up company should be doing. These days if you tune into Justin.tv/Justin you will most likely find him returning email or in the office with the other founders discussing what the next move will be for them.

Justin arriving at Shark’s Cove and looking for us.

Since Hawaii, Justin has been really busy. After we met up with him at Shark’s Cove for snorkeling, he drove back to Honolulu and caught a flight to L.A. for E3. Then he flew back to San Francisco for a week and then traveled to New York, New York for more business related meetings. This weekend Justin was in Seattle, his hometown to visit his family and to speak at Gnomedex, a technical trend conference.

Justin comes by our Hotel the day of the wedding. Watch the craziness of Paul, Tony, Rod, Jon, Gabe and I rehearsing the “My Girl” routine, Ryan and Evan running around looking for clothes and Gabe and I getting ready.

If you have visited Justin.tv lately, you will also notice the site’s new appearance. They are already actually working on the next new look for the site, that kinda resembles pages on a horizontal rolodex similar to the iPhone’s mp3 player (iTunes) album cover interface.

The last time I spoke with Justin he said he was looking forward to going back to Bay Meadows with us next month as well as Las Vegas in November. So that’s what’s going on with him these days. I leave you with Justin’s video of Elaine and Gabe’s Wedding, enjoy it now while it’s still online. The video starts as he arrives at the Kahala with his date Christa. Watch carefully and see if you can figure out when she left? You won’t have to wait long, by the time the ceremony was over, she was long gone.

Justin attends Elaine and Gabe 2007.

The Editor
jm

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VIRGIN AMERICA TAKES OFF!

August 8, 2007 by admin.

Today, Virgin America, based here in the Bay Area city of Burlingame, began air passenger service and joined the ranks of Dallas based giant Southwest Airlines and New York based JetBlue as another low cost air carrier alternative. Virgin will be a breath of fresh air in this market that has been dominated by Southwest. Maiden flights arrived from both New York and Los Angeles today loaded with V.I.P.s, the media and those who won tickets auctioned off on Ebay. Also on the JFK to SFO flight was Virgin Group CEO and industry maverick, Richard Branson.

Virgin America flights include these amenities, 3000 MP3s aboard every flight, 110v power at every seat for your laptop or portable DVD player, wireless broadband service, in-cabin chat(with the whole plane or specific seats), text messaging capabilities to ground based cellphones and an in-flight entertainment system at every seat. Also Virgin America will also employ it’s relaxing in-cabin mood lighting (kinda like inside a limousine) as it has done on the main carrier Virgin Atlantic.

Virgin America is targeting customers who want the savings of a low cost carrier without the unpleasant atmosphere that surrounds them (no food, mutiple layovers for transcon flights, no in-flight entertainment, cattle call style gate boarding, etc.). As soon as I get on one of their flights I’ll be able to report back first hand and decide whether they will be AllegedlySpeaking.com’s Official Airline. Until then it’s another Bay Area business that deserves our support. Why? Because they employ lots people and will hire more as they expand, those employees in turn will spend lots of money back into the Bay Area, our economy goes up, crime goes down etc., etc., etc. You get the picture. See the latest fares here.

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